June 4, 5, 6 & 7.     Tuesday thru Friday

Hot day on the cinders

Since Monday’s track workout was a physically draining one , I used Tuesday as a recovery day and simply rode my bike for about 20 minutes.

Wednesday I thought it would be a good day to run some thousands on the cinders. It didn’t seem like it was going to be a successful day when I began because my legs were heavy during warm-up. But I decided to pursue the thousands anyhow. As it turned out the thousands were not a bad workout. Each one got a little more comfortable although the time, remarkably, remained 5:07 exactly for each one.  I finished up with a 1.5 mile jog to finish off with a 5-mile day.  In the end I was completely drained and thought for a moment I might be in danger of suffering heat stroke. Here’s the story.  When I left home the thermometer in my car read 64 degrees. I was convinced this would be a terrific day to run a good, strong workout. I did as mentioned above without taking much note of the increased heat as time went by. When I sat in my car after the workout wondering if I had overdone it, the temperature read 88 degrees! That heightened my fear, but fortunately I was able to take some liquids, turn on the air-conditioning, roll down the windows and get cooled off on the way home. I remained fatigued for quite a while, drank my chocolate milk and ultimately I took a nap for about an hour and a half.  When I awoke my legs were shaking and threatening to cramp up. I kept hydrating and went for a short walk.

I began thinking that being 10 days away from my 1500 meter race and feeling like I had kind of reached a limit of my endurance for training, maybe it was time for me to begin backing off to be  totally recovered and strong by race time. When I spoke to Rich Refi that evening, the first thing he said to me after hearing my story was, “I think it’s time for you to begin to taper.”  Great minds!!

So, on Thursday I went to the pool and did some deep water running for about 10 minutes and then sat in the whirlpool for 20 minutes. It is now Friday morning and I am planning a similar kind of day. Maybe ride the bike for a half an hour or go back to the pool.

I am somewhat at a loss on how to approach the next 7 days. I will be leaving on Friday morning for the long flight to Albuquerque and then have Saturday to prepare for my race on Sunday.   My plan is to do some research on the subject of the taper today.   During my days has a high school coach I came to believe that the taper was not a very positive approach to the big race for 17 year old high school runners. We basically continued to train through the championship season. It became a kind of cornerstone of our program for which we became somewhat renowned: that is always getting stronger through the championship season rather than fading.  I don’t know if any of this applies to a 76 year old runner. But, I guess this entire +70 running experience has been a learning exercise.  Still more to learn………

Stats-

Weight = #147.4 after run on Wednesday!  Kind of crazy.

Other stats are normal and steady.